The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 15 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Rypka: Torchy's founders mutually declined the CEO role after PE investment
“They had actually asked like, do one of you guys want to be the CEO? And we all kind of said no.”
Rypka: Torchy's lost its identity by building 5,000-square-foot mega-restaurants
“The restaurants started to get
Away from our core, you know what I mean?
Like, we're a cool local taco shop, right?
Like, that doesn't look like 5000 square feet.
That looks more like 3000 square feet.
Like, cool, funky, graffiti on the walls not this big…”
Rypka: Torchy's Tacos operated illegally from a co-founder's driveway
“We ended up for a week literally cooking out of Bill's driveway. We Took the trailer, and we hooked up the power to the trailer at his house, which was totally illegal at the time, but, you know, we were trying to stay in business and, you know, keep some cash…”
Rypka: Only two of 300 promo customers agreed with critical review
“And I think out of the 300 articles we got only two people agreed with the article, so you can't please everybody, but that's a pretty impressive vote change there, so.”
Mike Rypka: Food trailers are great for starting but unsustainable long term
“Hey, look, this is a great way to start, but it's not a good way to sustain. It's very weather-dependent, It's a lot of heavy lifting every day of like shipping food back and forth. And so I was really like, hey, we got to get a brick and mortar.”
Rypka: Torchy's won an 18-month lawsuit to shut down a copycat
“We definitely went to the lawyers, and the thing went on for about 18 months, but we were able to get them to close everything down, so thank goodness for that.”
Rypka: Used early Torchy's investment funds to avoid home foreclosure
“We took some of that money to kind of help just hadn't had a paycheck yet. Right. And so I took a little bit of that cash and just kind of like kept my house from getting foreclosed on and got Caught up a little bit on some bills.”
Rypka: The Trailer Park is Torchy's Tacos' top-selling item
“Our first Taco of the Month was called the Trailer Park, which is our number one selling taco today all these years later.”
Rypka: Torchy's co-founder charged $15,000 of pumpkins to the company Amex
“Unbeknownst to me, he puts, you know, I think it was around 15,000 dollars worth of pumpkins on our business Amex card.”
Rypka: Torchy's aims to expand into most or all 50 states
“I mean, immediately, I think we'd like to be a national brand in most, if not all, 50 states. International, that's probably above my pay grade at this point but definitely, definitely nationally we definitely want to expand more up and down the east and west …”
Rypka: A restaurant brand needs to be bigger than its founder's name
“I never wanted a place that, like, had my name on it because I always felt like the place needed to be bigger than me”
Rypka: Took out a home loan to fund first Torchy's trailer
“I ended up taking a loan on my house and using that to help Kind of get the trailer painted and get our logo on there and buy some of the equipment.”
Rypka: Torchy's Tacos had 35 locations by 2017 investment deal
“Oh, no, we were at 35 at that point.”